


Shopping Trip

by soranokumo



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Canon - Original Game, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-07-31
Updated: 2004-07-31
Packaged: 2017-10-19 05:29:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/197431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soranokumo/pseuds/soranokumo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zack drags Cloud out to an old antique store one night, and Cloud teaches Zack some little-known facts about Nibelheim tradition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shopping Trip

Cloud walked beside Zack, wondering just where Zack was planning on taking him. He wasn't entirely certain, but Zack had said that there was an old store that he wanted to show him. Since this was Zack, "an old store" could mean a number of things, from bar to florist to... well, Cloud wasn't sure, but Zack had an awful lot of ways of entertaining himself so it was probably better going in without knowing what to expect.

They stopped outside of a small shop with bars in front of its windows. Zack shoved his hands further into his jacket's pockets and nodded at the door, his breath steaming.

"This's the place, kiddo."

"This place?" Cloud blinked at the plain door, and then looked at the barred showcase windows. There was nothing out on the showcase shelves to display, but there were many Wutaian characters painted across them in red and gold paint. Cloud liked the way they looked, but Zack hadn't taught him enough yet to know what they meant. He looked back at his friend, who nodded again.

"What's wrong? You seem kinda nervous."

"Never been here before," Cloud said honestly. He glanced behind him, where a group of drunks stumbled out one door and into another. "It reminds me of the slums."

"Well, you're safe with me. Now c'mon. The old man won't stay open too much longer, and he doesn't stay open after closing time for just anyone, y'know." Zack paused, one hand on the door. "'Cept for Seph. He stayed open for him."

 _Wouldn't anyone?_ Cloud thought, but just nodded instead. Zack probably knew what was running through his head, anyway. Then Zack pushed open the door, and as Cloud stepped in behind him he heard several tiny bells clingle overhead. The store was warm, and dimly lit, and the ceiling was wreathed in blue smoke. Cloud loosened his scarf and unzipped his own coat, and listened as Zack called out to the store owner with a Wutai greeting. Cloud followed his friend down the main aisle until they reached the counter, where "the old man" came out and greeted Zack with such rapid words that Cloud wondered that Zack understood him. He was short--compared to Zack, anyway, but then, most people were compared to Zack--and had a head covered with thin, long grey hair that he tied back, and Cloud thought he looked odd in casual clothes. He looked like someone who had stepped out of one of the really old Wutai martial arts flicks, and hadn't figured out how to get back inside. But he clapped Zack on the shoulder, and then looked around his friend to see Cloud. The old man grinned, and said something to Zack that was too low for him to hear.

Zack laughed, replied, then walked back to his friend. "C'mon, kiddo, let's go look at what he's got!"

"But what did he say?" Cloud asked, as Zack veered off down one of the aisles of old dark shelves.

"Ah, he just wanted to ask me if you came from where he thought you came from, that's all," said Zack, picking up a fingertrap from one of the shelves.

Cloud blinked at him. "Where did he think I came from?"

"The village at the foot of the black mountains." Zack was looking at the fingertrap as though tempted to play with it, but thought better of it and placed it back in its spot on the shelf. "Funny, isn't it? I remember hearing about Nibelheim in Wutai during the war. There's never been any history of trade between the country and your hometown though, right?"

Cloud shook his head. "I didn't even know that they knew Nibelheim existed."

"Most of the world doesn't, that's for sure. Anyway, stop looking so confused. Go browse! You haven't even looked at anything since we've been here." Zack looked down at him with one of his many smiles, this one of the brotherly variety, and ruffled his hair with a hand. "You might even find a few things from home. This's the only place where I've ever managed to find things from Gongaga, anyway."

"Huh?" And Cloud actually looked at the shelf on his eye level, and blinked. The shelf was filled with all sorts of strange baubles and knicknacks, many of which looked Wutaian, but others that were definitely not. He picked up a bone carving of a man with a harpoon and looked at the little tab attached to the base. "Bone Village?" he read aloud, and then he set it down. "These're all antiques?"

Zack was already further down the aisle. "Yep. Home decoration and collectibles for cheap, kiddo."

Cloud began wandering like Zack was, letting his eyes rove with much more appreciation for the little old man's little old store, trailing down one aisle and then the next. He was amazed at some of the things he saw, and grinned at some of the others, and stopped to gape at the giant brass brazier cauldron-ish thing that was letting out all of the blue smoke that filled the ceiling and gave the store its smell. He rubbed his nose, and jumped when the old man said from the counter, in near-perfect common, "Jasmine, mountain-child. Jasmine." Cloud bobbed his head awkwardly in thanks and sidled away into the last aisle, trying to ignore the old man's chuckle.

Zack was already at the end of the aisle, and Cloud hurried down to meet him, wondering what Zack was fiddling with. He was surprised to see Zack stopped in front of a section that seemed to be made entirely of items from Nibelheim, and much less surprised to see Zack picking up one of the beer mugs.

"Shit, are all of your beer mugs this cool?" Zack asked, turning it around in his fingers and staring at the painted carvings that completely covered it. Even the pewter lid depicted an old scene straight from the Nibelungeliad, and Cloud didn't even have to look at it to know it.

"Not all of 'em. Only the expensive ones." Cloud put his hands in his pockets, fingering the few coins and bills of gil he had with him. He had only brought along enough for a quick bite to eat; he hadn't expected Zack to actually take him shopping this late at night. "Mama had a few. She showed them to me once; she said when I came of age, I could have dad's."

"Really? Cool." Zack pressed down on the lever that opened the lid, and looked inside. "Ah, this is the real thing. The inside's pewter, too. But the bottom looks kind of funny... Is that glass?"

Cloud hesitated, before taking the mug from Zack. He looked for the nearest lightsource, and held the mug bottom-first toward it.

"Look through it now," Cloud said, and Zack, obviously amused, leaned down to peer through.

"Cloud?"

"Umm. Yeah?"

"Naked Nibelheim women are hot."

Cloud was trying not to blush too much, but Zack laughed and picked up another mug, looking through it toward the light.

"This one's got more clothes on... damn." Zack turned the mug upside down and looked at the glass, running one of his fingers along it. "Smooth on the bottom, too... but that's gotta be one hell of a carving job in that glass... Dark blue, too, so you'd never know the carving was there unless..." Zack put the mug back with a grin, then saw Cloud holding his nervously. "So... How did you know that those beauties were there, huh?"

He fidgeted. "Well, umm... that is... You know, when Mama showed them to me..."

"She didn't show you the women, too, did she?"

"It was... kinda sorta... by accident...?" Cloud swallowed, and held the mug to his friend, who was trying to stifle more laughter.

"No, no, wait a minute, I'm not done. So your dad had one, and your mom had one. Was there, what, a naked man at the bottom of hers?"

He shook his head, his face growing more red. "N-no. They were all made from the same, umm, shop, so, they all... had..."

"Kiddo, the more I hear about your mom, the more respect I have for the lady." Zack finally took the mug from him, looked at it, and shrugged. "Ah, what the hell. I want one, now. What about you? Did you see anything you wanted?"

Cloud felt his gil again in his pocket, bit his lower lip, and looked at the shelf consideringly. Before he could shake his head, Zack's hand picked up an old wood carving, looking at it and pursing his lips. He then looked at Cloud and quirked an eyebrow. "This?"

"N-no, Zack, don't get it, I can do without it, honest--"

"Nonsense. I know how much troopers make. You hold on to what you have, and let me treat you. Got it, trooper?" Zack looked at the carving. "This is one pretty wolf. What's his--"

"Fenrir." Cloud smiled at the carving, ran a hand along all of the stylized runes that had been etched into the wolf's sides and limbs and face. "Mama never told me his whole story, but that's okay. I liked to make it up myself."

Zack nodded, and they walked back to the counter, where the old man was petting a long-haired cat and reading a leather-bound, yellow-paged book. He looked up when they came closer, and as Zack put the mug and the wolf on the counter, he laughed and pointed at the mug.

"Who this for?"

Zack threw an arm around Cloud. "Can't you tell? This's a growing boy, he needs some--"

"Zack!" Cloud squeaked, his face burning again. The old man laughed, and picked up the carving.

"No, no, I can see. This wolf, yours, right?" He waited for Cloud's slow nod before wrapping the wolf carefully in cloth, first, then a sheet of brown paper. "Is good for you, mountain-child. He has your eyes."

Cloud blinked. "What?"

He handed Cloud the wolf, and began wrapping the mug next. As he put the mug into a brown paper bag, he rattled the price off to Zack and then something else that Cloud still couldn't make out. He put the wolf in his pocket, his fingers clutching the brown paper wrapping carefully, and the old man followed them to the door, still talking rapidly to Zack. They exchanged goodbyes, and as the old man closed the door, Cloud heard the bells jangle. Then he remembered how cold it was outside, yelped and began to zip up his coat and pulled his scarf closer again, just as Zack closed his jacket with a whistle.

"He's a nice old guy, isn't he?" Zack said, as they started the walk back.

Cloud nodded, knowing that Zack caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. "But what did he mean, Zack?"

"About you and the wolf?" He chuckled. "My guess is that he thinks that in a past life you must have been a wolf. He thought you had the same eyes."

Cloud thought about it, and shook his head. "I don't think so. I mean, wolves are supposed to be strong, and all--"

"He also said," Zack said, idly scratching the scar on his chin, "that you hadn't found your fangs yet." He grinned down at Cloud. "Don't take what he says too seriously, kiddo. He told me and Seph things like that the first time we came by. My guess is that he does it with everyone who wanders into his store, at least if he likes them." At Cloud's inquisitive look, Zack shrugged. "Told me I was one of those fire birds, and that Seph was a dragon."

"Oh."

They walked on in silence for a time, weaving around the occasional group of bar-hoppers, until Zack finally asked Cloud a question that had been on his mind.

"So, do they carve the women in the glass to keep the men drinking? I mean, you couldn't really see her unless you finished off the whole mug, right?"

"Zack!"

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note 7-31-2004:
> 
> I first got the idea for this about a month ago when my family happened to be moving one of my grandmothers into a new house around the block. Part of my family's ancestry lies in Germany, and my dad's family lived in Germany for awhile, too, so there were a lot of handmade German things to unpack. Among those things were the German beer steins, which really do have naked women carved into glass along the bottom, and I couldn't help but make the leap from Germany to Nibelheim, and thought about how Cloud would react if Zack happened to find one. It seemed like a fun, short story, and I can't write angst all the time, right? So, that's where the premise came from.
> 
> Originally, Zack was going to buy Cloud the other beer mug, but Cloud pouted and pointed at something else, which just happened to be a carving of Fenrir. I'm blaming Norse mythology for most of this rather than the upcoming movie, but cool. And the whole thing about the old man's belief in the lifestream/reincarnation just creeped up out of nowhere, but in a way it makes sense. Zack = phoenix = Cloud's rebirth. Sephiroth = dragon = ... XD There's the saying that when a solar eclipse occurs, it's because a dragon eats the sun. There's a parallel, there, what with Sephiroth/Jenova's plan to take in all of the planet's Mako and become a god. But dragons are supposed to be wise and noble creatures, too. You can say all these things are a bit of a stretch, but they make sense in my own head.


End file.
